The surprise champion: SCCS baseball wins Heritage League

Santa Clarita Christian pitcher Clint Ross pitches against Faith Baptist on Thursday at the Hart baseball complex. SCCS won the Heritage League title with a 6-5 win.

With all the other baseball noise in town, lost in the shuffle has been Santa Clarita Christian baseball’s unlikely fight for a Heritage League championship.

And in typical surprise fashion, the Cardinals erased an early five-run deficit and defeated Faith Baptist 6-5 on Thursday at the William S. Hart PONY Complex to win its first Heritage League title since 2008.

“This was one of the biggest moments in (SCCS) baseball,” said SCCS head coach Garrick Moss. “We won (a CIF championship) in ’04, but for a team so up and down, Faith Baptist is really good. For us to pull it off was a huge, huge accomplishment.”

This championship was even a surprise to Moss, he admitted.

A lineup made up of a freshman, five sophomores and three seniors not only came back to defeat Faith, but played so unevenly this season that Moss never knew what he was going to get.

Sophomore Clint Ross made things interesting on the mound early.

He surrendered five runs in the top of the second inning — all unearned — to give the Contenders (8-8, 5-4) the early 5-0 lead.

His own error in the frame cost the Cardinals.

For the next five innings, he made everything up for his team and then some.

He battled out of jams late and ended up with a complete-game victory, allowing six hits and striking out five.

The Cardinals (11-7 overall, 7-2 Heritage league) attacked Faith pitcher Mike Downs, who shut them down through the first three innings, with a two-run fourth and four-run sixth.

Davis Muxlow, who pitched a complete-game victory on Monday against Heritage League rivals Trinity Classical Academy (a game in which SCCS trailed 7-4 and won 9-7), started a two-out rally with a single.

Colton Huckabone then walked.

Both scored on a two-RBI single by Christian Broadbent.

In the fifth, Tommy Curry knocked in a run with a double, them Ross, Muxlow and Huckabone all singled in runs to go ahead 6-5.

Ross then went back to work in the sixth.

He surrendered a single and a walk, but was bailed out by a Broadbent over-the-shoulder grab in center field that turned into a double play on the throw.

Ross allowed two more base runners in the seventh, but got out of that mess and struck out Noah Campos to end the game.